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SET Tube Headphone amp

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Posted on October 15, 2009 at 07:50:17
regal
 I am looking for a design for an SET headphone amp. I have googled to death and found only one, but it has 5 expensive LLandal transformers. Would like to find other possibilities. I mean China is shipping them for $500, I would think it possible to build something better. I am a fan of CCS's, so no issues there. If anyone has any leads I would appreciate it.

Might be something here, posted on October 19, 2009 at 18:06:14
Dmannnnn
Audiophile

Posts: 140
Location: Las Vegas
Joined: November 23, 2008
 http://www.pmillett.com/

You mean one that uses a DHT?, posted on October 15, 2009 at 21:30:46
Frihed89
Audiophile

Posts: 8435
Location: Copenhagen
Joined: March 21, 2005
 There are quite a few SETs using IDHTs of various sorts, but none of them made in North America is as cheap as the Chinese models.
"What did the Romans ever do for us?"
RE: SET Tube Headphone amp, posted on October 15, 2009 at 09:09:12
Palustris
Audiophile

Posts: 251
Location: Cape Cod
Joined: September 12, 2008
 Here's a very simple headphone amp I designed. It uses the Magnequest B7-15k parafeed transformer; mine are nickel. I use it with Sennheiser HD580 and like the sound very much. The choice of triode is really up to you, but it obviously has to be biased properly so you will have to adjust the cathode resistor and, perhaps the plate resistor, if you use a different tube. You can also use a CCS for the plate load, naturally; in this case it would be set for 8mA. I haven't tried this yet, but would be an interesting experiment.

Don't forget that a headphone amp is basically a buffer. You aren't looking for any gain just increasing the power available to drive the phones.
RE: SET Tube Headphone amp, posted on October 17, 2009 at 01:54:31
regal
 Can you explain why the pot is connected to the HV at the chokes, or am I not seeing a connection dot at the ground plain ?

RE: SET Tube Headphone amp, posted on October 17, 2009 at 11:27:24
Palustris
Audiophile

Posts: 251
Location: Cape Cod
Joined: September 12, 2008
 There are no connection dots. I use the little U to denote where there is not connection. I use an old version of Visio to draw the schematics.

RE: SET Tube Headphone amp, posted on October 17, 2009 at 01:56:37
regal
 Also with regard to gain, with 600 ohm headphones you do need gain, at least a gain of 10. What does this do ?

RE: SET Tube Headphone amp, posted on October 17, 2009 at 11:28:17
Palustris
Audiophile

Posts: 251
Location: Cape Cod
Joined: September 12, 2008
 I am afraid that 20V would blow up the headphones and your eardrums.

RE: SET Tube Headphone amp, posted on October 16, 2009 at 13:04:59
dado4
Audiophile

Posts: 302
Joined: November 22, 2001
 I've done similar with an ECC99 tube. Output transformer as 10k:32 (2.5K:8). Drives my Grados fine and works with Sennheisers as well.

I also built a single stage with a 71A (same output xfmrs) and I do prefer this tube. Gain may be an issue depending on input and type of phones. The 31 and 112A would also be great DHTs for this application. The big thing here is easy DC implementation for the filaments. All these tubes have low current (250 ma or less) filaments so it's fairly easy to get very low ripple DC using affordable chokes and a 12v transformer/wall wart supply. Such would not be the case with a 10/45/2A3/300B.

Bottlehead S.E.X. amp, posted on October 15, 2009 at 08:20:27
Paully
Audiophile

Posts: 4167
Location: West Virginia
Joined: February 15, 2004
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